Picture Wall Geometry

When a picture wall has an odd shape, the trick is filling in the gaps.

When faced with a picture wall space that isn’t strictly square or rectangular due to a staircase or a diagonal ceiling line, hanging things gets tricky. So it’s helpful to see how others handle similar display issues. A clapboard barn/work studio in the California wine country [top] was furnished as an inviting living space by designer Patrick Printy, a former Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma art director. The mostly triangular window wall, hung with 33 separate pieces of art (many with a nautical theme), is an artful juggling act with many pieces of different sizes. In general, the grouping works on a diagonal axis — imagine a big X over the window from the floor to the ceiling. Placing the nickel Curtis Jeré sculpture right at the peak of the roof line is a bit like putting your best ornament on the top of the Christmas tree. One corner almost reaches the peak of the roof and everything else flows from there.

Vintage military and class photos often come in a panorama format. With newer cell phone cameras now panorama-capable, no doubt we will be seeing more of this old-fashioned shape in the future. These five old photos are large and skillfully arranged on the wall of a cottage bedroom. Since they nearly fit some spaces it might have been tempting not to fill in awkward spots with small rectangular photos but to my eye those are little bits of genius. And to help reinforce the overall pattern, all the frames but one are black.

This is one hot mess of a stairwell space hung with shadow boxed collections, random objects, pictures, and what-nots so intensely that even what appears to be an electrical outlet becomes just another fragment in the visual assemblage. Someone did a gravity-defying job of hanging pictures opposite the window wall. But I really love the organic and boho look here that seems to say ‘nobody measured this’ we just hung up our stuff in a way that looked good to us. So original — though aren’t they all?

Thanks for the compliment on the fruit engravings. For anyone who might have missed that, here’s the URL. http://bit.ly/yQs7Tm

I was busy over the weekend hanging family pics in my dressing room. I have a bunch of awards and diplomas to go in that area, too, but I ran out of the small Ook hangers so that has to wait. I may show it when I’m done though it’s a tough space to photograph. I had planned to stencil the wall but when you get enough stuff up, it sort of has the same effect. LOL.

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